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B.I.R. Column Of Fame

Man of Steel... Wood... and Mud: Bear GryllsRock Legend: Tom Morello

League Gods: The Emperor and Alfie

Str-8 Shoota: Malcolm X

Str-8 Shoota: Zack de la Rocha

Super Bad mofo's

Comrade Hillary

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Good grief, New Zealand

The long-awaited Ikea store (which would be an excellent addition to the retail landscape, especially in the currently over-priced furniture department) can't go to Mount Wellington because it might ... um, generate traffic. No shit. After it took me 50 minutes to get to work this morning, instead of the 20 minutes I was enjoying until last week, I suggest the Environment Court refuse resource consent for schools.

Apparently there were just two windows to pick-up pre-paid tickets at Eden Park for the T-20. The organizers of the event blame people not turning up early enough and being unfamiliar with the "intricacies" of Eden Park. Which rather disregards the idea that people generally, um, work on weekdays. Y'know that thing you do until at least 5pm, and quite often 6? As one disgruntled fan put it, "Do they assume that as they already have our money we will accept this?" Yes, that's exactly what they expect.

Right-wing talking point of the week is that Clark was cowardly in not attending all the events at Waitangi while Key looked prime ministerial. Audrey Young notes that previous visits have seen the PM and Labour MPs subjected to (1) accusations of treason, and associated death threats; (2) being shouted down by the usual suspect; (3)jostled by aggressive assholes; (4) perhaps most disgustingly, sprayed with urine. In the face. And add to that (5) Don Brash being pelted with mud, to which he replied rather wittily, "nice shot", but to which he would have been perfectly entitled to reply: "fuck off you little fucking c8nt".

If I'd had similar experiences in a place I wouldn't set foot in it. Quite why those responsible for law and order in New Zealand have let events like that unfold in the past is beyond me.

And for a little Darthwatch, this week he blames primary teachers for not "sorting out the little shits early enough" (although he doesn't deem to provide us with his thoughts on how this might be done); expresses support for more "real men" (read: heterosexuals) in primary school teaching; raises the old right-wing bugbear of performance-based pay for teachers (without suggesting even one criteria by which said performance might be measured); bashes teachers' unions; and prattles on about the government-in-waiting.